Overfed Fruit Flies Develop Diabetes

In one of the first-of-its-kind studies, biologists at Southern Methodist University in Dallas have found that when fruit flies were overfed, they developed a resistance to insulin, a key indicator of Type 2 diabetes. This will help further research into the effects and nature of Type 2 diabetes.

"We learned that by manipulating the nutrients of fruit flies, we can make them insulin resistant,"  said Johannes H. Bauer, principal investigator for the study.

"With this insulin-resistant model we can now go in with pinpoint precision and study the molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance, as well as drug treatments for the condition, as well as how to treat obesity, how to block insulin resistance and how metabolic changes from a specific diet develop. The possibilities are endless."

Usually, scientists have used rats and mice to study the effects of diabetes. While fruit flies have been used to study Alzheimer's disease and cancer, this is one of the first to use them to study diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes incidents are on the rise in the United States and is brought on by obesity and poor diet. The afflicted person is insulin-resistant because of his or her cells refusal to aknowledge the insulin's signals to digest glucose.

One group of flies in theh study were fed in high-carb diets and the other group with high-protein diets.

"Carb-loaded flies gain weight. Protein-loaded flies gain and then lose weight. So the two diets have exactly opposite effects on metabolism," said Bauer. 

"But too much of either one of them causes insulin resistance. That surprised us."

"The carb data imply a linear relationship between carb levels and health. The more carbs, the more weight, the more sugar storage and fat, the more insulin resistance and the less fertility," he said. 

"But with protein, this relationship becomes parabolic, meaning all readouts go up, then come down again. The decreased storage we liken to a catabolic state that is primarily destructive for the body's optimum metabolic functioning, such as the ketosis typically seen in people eating Atkins-type diets."